As part of one of the fastest-growing and highly-sought-after school districts in the entire country, LMHS students have been held to notoriously high educational standards. With a strong emphasis on academic prowess, students sit awake at night glued to their computers doing homework, scouring the internet for summer internships, and working to enhance their resume for college applications. But what is it that contributes to LM’s favorable rankings, and how does it hold up comparatively to other schools in Pennsylvania?
For all four years of high school, one unanimous goal is shared among many students: getting into college. With exceptionally high Ivy League matriculation for a public school (7.46 percent of the class of 2023 were accepted to Ivies) LM students are in a four-year race against one another to be offered one of a finite number of spots at an elite university. Due to the relativity of college applications, each student is primarily measured against their peers, consequently brewing pressure between students.
Census Reporter indicates that the median household income in Montgomery county is $147,713, over two times the statewide average of $73,000. As a result, elitist culture is unsurprisingly prevalent on our campus. To LM students, the dream of attending prestigious universities has become streamlined amongst the student body so much so that it is reflective in not only student ambitions, but physical manifestations. Ivy League merchandise can be seen adorning the water bottles and sweaters of LM students, further reinforcing their ambitions of higher education. Students desire a high quality college education—not only for their own benefit, but to uphold the social standards set in place by their environment.
As an institution that produces high-caliber students, LMHS unsurprisingly spends double the amount of money on each student than the average high school nationally, coming in at around $27,000 each according to Niche. Digging deeper into the district finances, there are a handful of important differences between us and neighboring school districts. According to US News, LMSD receives 84.8 percent of its funding from “local revenue,” or, in other words, property taxes. Simultaneously, the School District of Philadelphia gets only 33 percent of its funding from property taxes. This difference in school funding implies that you essentially get what you can pay for. Families with the financial ability to live in a location that provides high-quality educational resources are granted access to them, while others are forced to submit to subpar instruction. With a surplus of student resources, technology, sports, and clubs, students are put under immense pressure to perform, creating what some may view as a toxic work culture.
Driven by the need to excel, LM students often find themselves stuck in a cycle of living to work and quantify their self worth by letters on a transcript. Setting up unhealthy habits young, LM creates not just hard workers, but perfectionists. Starting in the very classes that are an expectation amongst the student body, the average high school graduate will have taken anywhere between one and five AP classes. Meanwhile, this is the average course load for many students during one year at LM. The privilege of having a surplus of difficult classes available each year comes at the expense of both academic and social standards to uphold for students. At the detriment of student mental health, the work that comes with these classes weighs substantially on students’ social and personal lives. Kalina Rauer ’26 says, “I feel like I have to prioritize school over almost everything just to stay on track with everyone else for college. I wish that we were able to have more of a work-life balance at LM instead of being constantly challenged during the day and then left to our own devices when we get home to complete hours of homework.” Rauer emphasizes the struggle of copious amounts of homework following a seven-hour school day. Along with academics, LM students may also feel an expectation from family or peers to participate in a number of school activities, clubs, and sports. With a significant portion of the student body simultaneously being student-athletes, the average student’s school day consumes most of the daylight hours. As LM students reflect on their time in high school, we are left to wonder if the many hours spent tirelessly working were worth the cost of our teenage years. If we could do it all over again, would we do it all the same?
